Vigilance police on Monday arrested and court-forwarded Mayurbhanj district’s Udala Horticulture Overseer Surendra Nath Dehury, Assistant Horticulture Officer (retired) Narottam Rogar and Horticulture Extension Worker Sarat Chandra Pattnaik on the charge of misappropriating Rs 31.47 lakh of National Horticulture Mission projects.
They have been remanded to judicial custody till January 2, 2015, an official release informed. The arrests were made after enquiries conducted into allegations that huge amounts of Government money were misappropriated by Horticulture officials through false records of mango plantation in Ranipokhari and Balichua villages under Kaptipada block.
During enquiry, it was ascertained that in Ranipokhari village, plantation had been undertaken in 10.8 hectares of land in place of 33 hectares and a total of 1,256 mango trees were found available against 3,300 trees shown planted as per record. Similarly, in Balichua, plantation had been undertaken in 12.68 hectares in place of 50 hectares and only 1,389 mango trees were found planted against 5,000 shown planted as per record.
It was found that a total of Rs15,02,871 in respect of Ranipokhari and Rs16,44,124 in respect of Balichua were misappropriated by the officials.